STUDY GUIDE
Study Guide for Luis Alfaroʼs
Oedipus el Rey
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Synopsis of Sophoclesʼ Oedipus the King
3
• Glossary and Pronunciation Guide
4
• In Depth: Ancient Gods and Monsters
o (Greek) The Sphinx
o (Aztec) Coatlicue
8
9
• The Oedipus Myth in Adaptation
10
• Luis Alfaro Speaks
12
• Questions for Discussion
14
• Read More About It
15
Compiled by Jane Ann Crum, Dramaturg
2
Synopsis of Sophoclesʼ Oedipus the King
There are multiple versions of the Oedipus myth, which was dramatized more
often than any other legend and second only to the Trojan War as a subject for
Greek epic poetry. Some thirteen different Greek authors, including Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, are known to have written plays on the subject. Only
Sophoclesʼ Oedipus the King has survived. A synopsis follows:
Outside the palace at Thebes, the townspeople gather, imploring Oedipus to free
their city from the plague. Oedipus reveals that he has already sent his brotherin-law Creon to Delphi to discover the reason for the plague. Creon enters and
makes his report: the oracle declared that Thebes cannot free itself from the
plague until the murderer of Laius (the former king) has been found and
punished. Oedipus declares his resolve to search out the murderer and bring
him to justice. Oedipus reminds the chorus that he freed them from the Sphinx
and he will save the city yet again. Tiresias, a blind prophet, is summoned, and
warns Oedipus that if he pursues this quest for Laiusʼ killer, the true identity of
the murderer will be hard to bear. Queen Jocasta enters and to calm her
husbandʼs outrage at Tiresiasʼ refusal to reveal the name of the murderer, tells
him that Laius was killed where three roads meet. A messenger from Corinth
arrives to inform Oedipus of the death of King Polybus (the man Oedipus
believes to be his father). When Oedipus expresses his relief that he did not (as
an earlier oracle prophesized) kill his father or sleep with his mother, the
messenger from Corinth reveals that Oedipus was not the natural son of
Polybus, but was left as an infant to die on Mount Cithaeron. At this news,
Jocasta exits the stage. A shepherd, who received the infant from Laiusʼ hands,
is summoned. Under Oedipusʼ questioning, he reveals that he did not abandon
the child, but gave him to a man from Corinth. Upon hearing this, Oedipus exits
the stage. He returns, blood dripping from his empty eye sockets, to tell the
townspeople that Jocasta has hung herself and that he, Oedipus, has punished
the murderer of Laius.
3
Glossary
an alleluia
Religious, born again Christian
chismoso
one who gossips (chisme is gossip)
asi
like that
cólera
rage
baboso
stupid, a slobbering idiot
compadre
godfather of your child (or vice
versa), but also any close family
friend
barrio
neighborhood, ʻhood, ghetto
bigote
mustache
botanica
botanists
cabrón
bastard, son of a bitch (also a Billy
goat)
cafecito
coffee
caliente
hot
callate
be quiet, shut up
carnal
brother, close friend
carro
car
chi-chi
breast
consejo
advice
chamaco
kid (masculine)
chaparrito
shorty (chaparro is short, so this is a
diminutive of short)
como no
of course
cholo
A cholo is a Chicano male who
typically dresses in chinos, a wifebeater sleeveless t-shirt or a flannel
shirt with only the top buttoned, a
hairnet, or with a bandana around
the forehead, usually halfway down
over the eyes. Cholos often have
black ink tattoos, commonly involving
Catholic imagery, or calligraphy
messages or family names.
chivo
goat
4
chingao
a variation of chingado, meaning
fucked up
La Curacoa
Salvadoran department store
desconocido
a stranger
dinero
money
enfadada
fed up
ese
what you call your close friend,
something like dude or homeboy
(used mostly by Chicanos in
Southern California)
eso
that
Esfinge
Sphyx
farmacia
pharmacy
filósofo
philosopher
gente
people
guapo
handsome
hermanas
sisters
hijo
son
hombre
man
huesos
bones
huesero
bonesetter
humilde
humble
limpia
a cleanse
matar
to kill
media noche
midnight
mero, mero
the top, the leader, the Man
mierda
shit
místico
mistic
mocoso
snot-nosed kid (masculine)
negocios
business
niño
child (boy)
5
novela
telenovela, Mexican soap opera
porque
why
ojos
eyes
puto/a 93
whore
orden
order
Que
What
oye
Hey! literally it means ʻlistenʼ or ʻto
hearʼ
rabia
rage
paletero
popsicle seller
panadero
baker
papá
father
Patas Malas
Bad Feet
pendejo
idiot, dumb ass
perrito
little dog
pinché
fucking (as an adjective curse, not as
in sex) also worthless
respeto
respect
Rey
king
saladitos
dried salted plum
terramicina
an antibiotic, like penciilin
tiempo
time
trabajo
work
verdad
truth
veteranos
veterans
pleito
fight, argument
político
politician
polvos 53
powders
6
Spanish Pronunciation Guide
If a word ends in a vowel, n or s, the stress is on the penultimate (next to last) syllable.
For example, carro, pendejo, and joven all have their accent on the next-to-last syllable.
Most words fit this category.
Words than end a consonant (other than n or s) have the stress on the last syllable. For
example, matar, animal, and verdad all have the accent on the final syllable.
If a word isn't pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the
vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example, cabrón, místico, pinché, político all
have the stress on the syllable with the accent.
The only exceptions to the above words are some words of foreign origin, usually words
adopted from English, that retain their original spelling and pronunciation. For example,
sandwich is usually spelled without an accent over the initial a, even though the stress is as
in English
Sometimes accent marks are used only to distinguish two similar words, and they don't
affect pronunciation (because the marks are already on a syllable that is being stressed).
For example, el and él are both pronounced the same way, even though they have different
meanings.
Compiled by Sonia Fernández, Assistant Director
7
In Depth: Ancient Gods and Monsters
The Sphinx
The word sphinx comes from the Greek verb sphingo, meaning "to strangle". This name
may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, and kill
their prey by strangulation, biting the throat of prey and holding them down until they die.
The word sphincter derives from the same root.
There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad
luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Echidna and Orthrus; according to
others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are chthonic figures from
the earliest of Greek myths, before the Olympians ruled the Greek pantheon. In Greek
mythology, a sphinx is represented as a monster with a head and breasts of a woman, the
body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a serpent headed tail.
It was said in late lore that Hera or Ares sent the Sphinx from her Ethiopian homeland (the
Greeks always remembered the foreign origin of the Sphinx) to Thebes in Greece where
she asks all passersby the most famous riddle in history. By some accounts (but much
more rarely), there was a second riddle: "There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other
and she, in turn, gives birth to the first." The answer is "day and night" (both words are
feminine in Greek).
Bested at last by Oedipus, the Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died. An
alternative version tells that she devoured herself. Thus Oedipus can be recognized as a
"liminal" or threshold figure, helping effect the transition between the old religious
practices, represented by the death of the Sphinx, and the rise of the new, Olympian gods.
1) Art, or, The Caress of the Sphinx by Ferdinand Khnopff (1896) Royal Museum of Fine Arts,
Brussels; 2) Oedipus sits pondering the question of the Sphinx outside the gates of Thebes.
Red figure drinking cup (circa 470 BCE) Etruscan Museum, the Vatican.
8
Coatlicue
Coatlicue, "The Mother of Gods" is the Aztec goddess who gave birth to the moon, stars,
and Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war. She is also known as Toci (Tocî, "our
grandmother") and Cihaucoatl (Cihu_c_hu_tl, "the lady of the serpent"), the patron of
women who die in childbirth.
The word "Coatlicue" is Nahuatl for "the one with the skirt of serpents". She is referred to
variously by the epithets "Mother Goddess of the Earth who gives birth to all celestial
things", "Goddess of Fire and Fertility", "Goddess of Life, Death and Rebirth", and
"Mother of the Southern Stars".
She is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made
of human hearts, hands and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her
breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from nursing. Her face is formed by two facing
serpents, referring to the myth that she was sacrificed during the beginning of the
present creation.
Most Aztec artistic representations of this goddess emphasize her deadly side, because
as well as a loving mother, she is the insatiable monster that consumes everything that
lives. She represents the devouring mother, in whom both the womb and the grave exist.
According to Aztec legend, she was once magically impregnated by a ball of feathers
that fell on her while she was sweeping a temple, and subsequently gave birth to the
gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl. Her daughter Coyolxauhqui then rallied Coatlicue's four
hundred other children together and goaded them into attacking and decapitating their
mother. The instant she was killed, the god Huitzilopochtli suddenly emerged from her
womb fully grown and armed for battle. He killed many of his brothers and sisters,
including Coyolxauhqui, whose head he cut off and threw into the sky to become the
moon. In one variation on this legend, Huitzilopochtli himself is the child conceived in the
ball-of-feathers incident and is born just in time to save his mother from harm.
1) Coatlicue and her
daughter,
Coyolxauhqui, the moon;
2) Coatlicue by Ehecatzin;
3) Stone Statue of
Coatlicue, National
Anthropology Museum,
Mexico City.
9
The Oedipus Myth in Adaptation
Sophoclesʼ Oedipus the King is thought by some to be written about a real plague that
devastated Athens in 430 – 427 BCE, soon after the Peloponnesian War began. In
Sophoclesʼ version of the myth, the discovery of the identity of Oedipus coincides with his
reversal of fortune. The plot is unusual because it does not concern any fatal error that
occurs during the action of the play. For Sophocles, Oedipusʼ harmartia (error in judgment)
is simply that he was born.
The Oedipus of Sophocles was one of the most famous Greek tragedies in later classical,
Byzantine, and medieval times. It was also a favorite of the humanists of the sixteenth
century, and has been imitated and adapted by various dramatists throughout the ages.
In Jean Cocteau's 1934 retelling of the Oedipus legend, The Infernal Machine, the Sphinx
tells Oedipus the answer to the riddle, to kill herself so that she did not have to kill any more,
and also to make him love her. He leaves without ever thanking her for giving him the answer
to the riddle. The scene ends when the Sphinx and Anubis (the Egyptian jackal-headed god
of the dead), who is there to kill the victims who cannot answer the riddle, ascend back to the
heavens.
With its world of Chicano culture and Aztec gods, Luis Alfaroʼs Oedipus El Rey proves that
this twenty-five hundred year old story continues to haunt writers from all cultures and all
climes.
Here is a list of some of those adaptations, which should not be considered comprehensive:
Oedipus the King by Sophocles (circa 430 B.C.E.)
Oedipus – Seneca (circa 60 A.D.)
Oedipe – Pierre Corneille (1652)
Oedipus – John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee (1679)
Oedipe - Voltaire (1718)
Oedipus and the Sphinx - Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1906)
Oedipus - Andre Gide (1931)
The Infernal Machine - Jean Cocteau (1934)
10
Oedipus Rex (a film) - Pier Paolo Pasolini (1961)
Post 1980
Oedipus - Ellen McLaughlin
Oedipus - Derek Mahon Oedipus - Steven Berkoff
Oedipus at Palm Springs - The Five Lesbian Brothers
The Darker Face of the Earth - Rita Dove
Oedipus Complex - Frank Galati
Jocasta - Philip Freund
Oedipus – Dare Clubb
Oedipus El Rey – Luis Alfaro
Thebans - Liz Lochhead
The Gods are Not to Blame - Ola Rotimi
Sweet Self - Zay Amsbury
From The Arab Oedipus: Four Plays, edited by Marvin Carlson, published in
2006
Oedipus the King - Tawfiq al-Hakim
Comedy of Oedipus: You Killed the Beast! - Ali Salem
The Tragedy of Oedipus - Ali Ahmad Bakathir
Oedipus - Walid Ikhlasi
11
Luis Alfaro Speaks
Jane Ann Crum: Why this play now?
Luis Alfaro: It seems like the right thing to do at this moment in time, as technology
advances. I have this theory, “The more we have the less we get.”
Jane Ann Crum: You mean the more information thatʼs out there, the less intelligent we
become?
Luis Alfaro: That weʼre actually shrinking our intellect, shrinking our imagination. This
seems the right time to go back to something primal, something indigenous, something
original as a way of discovering who we are today.
Jane Ann Crum: Why set the prologue of this play in a prison?
Luis Alfaro: Iʼd always imagined that this play took place in prison, so the audience for
this play was these prisoners. For many of us, because of poverty and the lack of
education and the increased violence in our culture, it could be that we trap ourselves in
ignorance and in these social issues that end up destroying us. So, are you a prisoner
even before you go to prison? Have you made that your destiny? Is that the thing youʼre
working towards? Are we prisoners long before we go to prison? How do you avoid
those traps?
Jane Ann Crum: What inspired you to send Oedipus to L.A.?
Luis Alfaro: Itʼs the tale of a young man who acts in hubris as a way of avoiding his
destiny or fate. Being a teacher, I can tell you that I meet an Oedipus every semester! I
was so taken with the idea that if the Gods have already decided what our destiny is, only
one so young and full of life could challenge such a decision. [I was] . . . thinking a lot
about where the new kings might be and the thought of prison entered my
mind—alternate societies that exist in our time but with very old rituals and ideas about
fate. The young king comes up for parole and he goes to the last great city – Los
Angeles—at the edge of the ocean, the edge of the world, on the rim, a city with over
1000 spoken languages, a perfect place to find your kingdom, donʼt you think? Thatʼs
why I love the Greek plays. They transcend time and they lend themselves to the issues
of today, which are classically the same.
Jane Ann Crum: Youʼve worked in television and journalism and youʼre a spokenword artist and a poet. Why do you keep writing plays?
12
Luis Alfaro: I love the theatre. Itʼs where my alchemy happens—this collision between
passion/desire and skill/technique. Itʼs such an ancient form. Iʼve always felt that Iʼm part
of a larger continuum, a legacy of writers who have gone before me and will go after. I
contribute the story of today, and, hopefully, it speaks to the issues that matter most to us
today. I was also so lonely as a writer. I started in poetry, then performance, with stops
in journalism, short stories and criticism along the way. By the time I came to the theatre,
I longed to be in a room with other artists, sharing our work. The theatre gives you both
the opportunity for meditation and collaboration in the same form. Film and television
could not live without writers, but it is not their form – itʼs a directorʼs medium. Writers are
not valued, truly valued, like they are in the theatre.
13
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What visual elements (costumes, set, lights, sound) of Magic Theatreʼs
production of Oedipus El Rey help you understand that you are moving from place
to place, i.e. from the prison to the barrio and back to prison? [prison door slams,
whistles, orange shirts, tattoos, hand gestures, and for the barrio, hats, belts,
dance music, vocalizations, selling wares on the street, etc.]
2. The playwright, Luis Alfaro, uses the chorus – the four-actor “coro”— to
transform themselves into the many roles necessary to tell the story of Oedipus.
Name some of those roles and discuss how that transformation takes place.
Changes in costumes and masks are obvious choices, but what other tools do the
actors use to transform themselves? [i.e. their bodies, voices, movement
patterns, use of props, etc.]
3. Discuss the definition of the word “oracle.” In Oedipus El Rey, oracles function
in important ways. Can you track them? [From the human (El Sobrador, who
divines the first prophecy and delivers it to Laius), to the animal (the Owls who
appear in prison to inform Oedipus of his destiny), and finally, near the end of the
play, the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (who tells the entire barrio that something
horrible has happened.)
4. Many rituals are present in Oedipus El Rey. Can you name some and discuss
how they are presented to the audience? [Childbirth, a battle to the death
(between Oedipus and Laius), a party, and a wedding. You might also want to
discuss the Mexican/Chicano custom of the wedding lasso.]
5. Using the material in this study guide about the Sphinx, discuss how the
playwright recasts this monster in a comic light.
14
READ MORE ABOUT IT
Greek Myth and Drama:
The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, Penguin Books, 1955.
Sophocles I, (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone,) ed. by Grene &
Lattimore, University of Chicago Press, 1954.
A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater by Graham Ley. University Of
Chicago Press, February 15, 2007.
A Handbook of Classical Drama by Philip Whaley Harsh, Stanford University Press,
1944.
Theory and Criticism:
The Eating of the Gods by Jan Kott, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL.
1987.
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1st Vintage Ed edition, April 12, 1967.
Man's Measure: A Study of the Greek Image of Man from Homer to Sophocles, by
Lazlo Versenyi, State University of New York Press, 1974.
Other Plays and Solo Performance Texts by Luis Alfaro:
Electricidad by Luis Alfaro. American Theatre, Theatre Communications Group,
February, 2006.
Out of the Fringe: Contemporary Latina/Latino Theatre and Performance, ed. Caridad
Svich and Maria Teresa Marrero, Theatre Communications Group, 2000. [Includes
Luis Alfaroʼs Straight as a Line]
Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, ed. Coco Fusco, Routledge,
December 29, 1999. [Includes Luis Alfaroʼs Cuerpo Politizado]
Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth
Century by Jo Bonney, Theatre Communications Group; 1st edition, February 1,
1999. [Includes Luis Alfaro's downtown]
15